Paolo Sorrentino
L'Amico Di Famiglia

"L'amico di famiglia" is a reaffirmation of the talent of this splendid director after the beautiful "Le conseguenze dell'amore". I have only one regret, never having seen one of his films in the cinema. I can imagine the effect that his evolutions, the masterful sequences, and that strong and ingenious direction would have had on the big screen.

The film offers us a spectacular beginning; once again, Sorrentino takes his time to unveil the folds of the story, enjoying playing with the impatient viewer. The agile volleyball players in slow motion, the lights and shadows of the city, the colors and symmetries are the premise to reach him, Geremia, who appears to be an outcast in a society of winners. Yet, he is the one who keeps everyone on edge, a deformed usurer full of obsessions and vices, a lonely man, a spider that eventually manages to trap all the weak in his web. Slowly, his apparent otherness, his solitude end up leveling with the lifestyle and the miseries of all the other characters who end up submitting to him, asking him for loans precisely to maintain their vices and obsessions. In the end, however, it is he, the different, the ugly, who emerges victorious from the film as the only truly humanized and vulnerable one, willing to throw himself completely into the game and lose everything.

As in the previous film "Le conseguenze dell'amore," this time too, what breaks the barriers and disrupts the balance of an apparently orderly and habitual life is the infatuation with Rosalba, nothing but the other side of the coin. The contrast of her beauty and apparent purity with Geremia is splendid. It doesn't take long to realize that this young and ambitious woman is the same as him but without his style, without his distorted wisdom. Where Geremia has his dignity despite his dirty work, Rosalba is empty inside, representing nothingness with beauty as her only strength. It will be that sole strength that she will ultimately use to exact her revenge, placing herself even lower than the level of the ugly deformed man.

The soundtrack is, as always, exquisitely curated and splendid. Sorrentino is one of us, someone who loves our music. If Lali Puna dominated in "Le conseguenze dell'amore," I can't deny having a flutter in my heart hearing my Notwist at the end of this splendid film.